Features

11 times the scene got ‘Punk’d’

Before reality shows such as Jersey Shore and Teen Mom pulled in viewers on MTV, we had Punk’d, a weekly dose of hilarity where host Ashton Kutcher pranked some of the 2000s most popular celebrities. Beginning in 2003, Kutcher helmed the show as host for eight seasons and produced nine—the last of which he passed off the ever-changing hosting throne so celebrities such as Miley Cyrus and Nick Cannon could prank their friends. From Pete Wentz to the Madden brothers, Kutcher and friends managed to prank plenty of members of the scene. In honor of the show’s upcoming 15-year anniversary, here are some clips of rockers getting roasted in all the best ways.

Mike Shinoda ended up with a broken car window in his Season 3 episode appearance after parking near a fire hydrant that a couple fake firemen needed to access. In an interview with France’s One magazine, Shinoda discussed his time on Punk’d, revealing he went where he was told to park and got a fake fine for blocking a hydrant that magically appeared, courtesy of the Punk’d crew.

Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat of All Time Low joined episode host Nick Cannon in pulling one over on pop sensation (and emo at heart) Demi Lovato for the series’ ninth season. The duo invited Lovato to the studio to check out some tunes they were working on when some spooky things started happening in the supposedly haunted building.

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker hit his boiling point on his Season 2 episode appearance. He lost his cool when a waiter posing as then-girlfriend Shanna Moakler’s ex wouldn’t stop making fun of his mohawk and hitting on her. In 2015, Barker released his memoir, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, And Drums, Drums, Drums, where he discusses his cameo on the MTV prank show. In the book, Barker chronicles a pill addiction and uses the filming day as an example. He had just gotten off a 19-hour plane ride from Australia “out of [his] mind on pills—totally Xanaxed out” when Moakler suggested they get dinner to celebrate his birthday. She took him to a restaurant he had never heard of, and he questioned why they hadn’t gone to their favorite place as well as why the new one was so brightly lit. Regardless of his suspicion, Barker admits he took a hit of ecstasy at the table and started becoming increasingly angry at the flirty waiter to the point of challenging him to fight. It was then that Kutcher ran out, but Barker reveals it took him a minute to realize it was all a joke, and he was still mad because the fake waiter had “ruined [his] buzz.”

Describing Avril Lavigne as a badass and “the girl who wears ties,” Kutcher pranked the singer in a Season 5 episode. Using Lavigne’s friend Chantal Kreviazuk as an accomplice, the Punk’d crew added a “reserved” sign to the spot where Lavigne parked, and they blocked her in with another car. What happens next is quite explosive—literally.

Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter thought he was going to prank his friend and drummer Tommy Lee; but having yet to be punk’d himself, Carter gets pranked in a run-through of the gag. Once the unofficial initiation occurs, Carter becomes an accomplice in Lee’s prank as the driver to a yellow Hummer, in which Lee is riding shotgun. Carter hits a woman crossing the street as the duo are fleeing paparazzi.